Thursday, December 23, 2010

Tina Turner Thursday

Live from Barcelona in 1990, Tina Turner gave one of her best concert appearances ever. On her Foreign Affair tour, she set box office records for attendance and seared the audience again and again with the best and biggest hits of her career. Adding to this list is something Ms. Turner does quite well.

Ask Me How I Feel is a great track from her Foreign Affair album. It really rocks and the vocals Tina belts out are just superb. Both on the album and live, this tune always gets the blood pumping and the feet moving. You can’t just can’t beat Tina when she turns it on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her not to turn it on, either.

This clip from that legendary concert in Spain showcases Tina singing this hot number in a hot number. The adoring audience just couldn’t get enough. Neither can millions of others around the globe. Ask Me How I Feel? Sure, Tina, we’re always interested in you.

1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.

1919 - The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.

1930 - Ruth Elizabeth Davis, an unknown actress, arrived in Hollywood, under contract to Universal Studios. Universal changed her name to Bette Davis for the movies.

1938 - "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" was heard for the final time on the radio.

1941 - During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.

1942 - Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.

1943 - "Hansel and Gretel," the opera, was televised on New York's WRBG. It was the first complete opera to be televised.

1947 - John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley invented the transistor.

1948 - Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo. They had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.

1951 - A National Football League (NFL) championship game was televised nationally for the first time. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-17. The DuMont Network had paid $75,000 for the rights to the game.

1953 - Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.

1954 - The Walt Disney movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was released.

Disney movies, music and books

1957 - Dan Blocker made his acting debut on television in the "Restless Gun."

1965 - A 70-mph speed limit was introduced in Britain.

1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.

1972 - The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play that was dubbed the "Immaculate Reception." Pittsburgh's Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in for the winning touchdown.

1981 - NASA approved a plan to continue the Voyager II spacecraft on a trajectory that would take it within 66,000 miles of Uranus on July 24, 1986.

1986 - The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.

1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured as they were attempting to flee their country.

1990 - Elections in Yugoslavia ended, leaving four of its six republics with non-Communist governments.

1995 - A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children's school.

1995 - The bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple religious sect were found in a clearing near Grenoble, France. 14 were presumed shot by two people who then committed suicide.

1997 - Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.

1998 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.

Thursday's Flashback

If there’s anything Bette Midler can’t do, I have yet to discover it. This woman has acted and sang her way into the hearts of millions, and she just keeps getting better as the years go by.

Here, singing a phenomenal cover of Rosemary Clooney’s White Christmas, Bette shows what makes her the star she is. In a duet with Barry Manilow, who once played piano and sang background for Bette in Manhattan’s bath houses, these legendary performers delivered a wallop. Their combined talent is amazing.

White Christmas is one of those timeless holiday classics. It’s hard to make it sound bad but it’s even harder to make it sound special. This, Bette and Barry do with ease. Watching them sing this song just makes you feel good.